Kenton M. answered • 09/18/20
Philosophy, Reading, Writing Tutor for Advanced or Struggling Students
The first city-states arose as humans became more capable at agriculture. When they could make all their food in one place, they stuck around in one place, developing infrastructure for it. These first cities were small by modern standards, often with only in the tens of thousands of people in them. They tended to form in fertile river valleys and around religious monuments and temples.
Recent archaeological finds suggest that humans had been performing small-scale agriculture for tens of thousands of years before the first cities arose. However, certain areas became religious centers with regular pilgrims and those were the areas that built up into dedicated agricultural cities.
